GORHAM – Just home from visiting overseas, where he once taught for a decade, an English teacher broadens the Gorham High School faculty with his unique global perspective.

Jason Simpson, 40, came to Gorham High School in mid-fall last year following 10 years of teaching English in Turkey. He returned to the United States after fulfilling his desire of gaining a world perspective.

“I always envisioned coming back,” Simpson, a native of Farmington, said in his classroom Tuesday.

Simpson teaches 10th grade English at Gorham High School, where his students returned to class Aug. 29. The educational standard is high in Gorham, Simpson said. “This is a great area, a great community,” Simpson said.

“We are excited to have Jason Simpson as part of our talented staff at Gorham High School,” Principal Chris Record said on Wednesday. “He brings a wealth of worldly experience from his time abroad and yet also a deep understanding of Maine students because he grew up here in our wonderful state.”

Prior to teaching 10 years in Turkey, Simpson taught five years in Maine.

“I always felt there was something missing,” Simpson said. “I hadn’t gone out to see for myself.”

The opportunity to teach in Turkey came when he attended a job fair in Boston. As a result, he taught in two private schools in Istanbul, a Turkish city with a population of 10.4 million.

After his first private school assignment, he became a faculty member at Robert College, an elite school founded in Istanbul by an American, but it is actually a high school. Some of his former students in Istanbul have graduated from prestigious American colleges and universities like Bates, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Simpson said typical class sizes in Istanbul’s private schools are about 20 students, which are similar in size to those at Gorham. Simpson said class sizes in Turkey’s public schools number as high as 50, 60 or 70 students.

Robert College had an enrollment of about 1,000, which compares with Gorham High School’s 850 students. In Turkey, students are only mandated to attend school through the eighth grade, and need to pass a national test to be eligible to be accepted into high school. Turkey has a good university system, he said.

One of Simpson’s students in Turkey could only say hello in English in the eighth grade. But she learned English and earned a degree from Harvard. Simpson said there’s pressure for Turkish students to become engineers, doctors and lawyers.

“English was a big focus for them,” Simpson said.

Some of his former students in Istanbul were Armenian Christians, he said. He stays in touch with former students – Facebook makes it “easy,” he said.

While teaching in Istanbul, he saw high-level U.S. government personnel and congressmen. Even Ted Turner, CNN founder, visited Simpson’s school in Istanbul.

Tuition at private schools for kindergarten through high school in Istanbul costs up to $35,000 per year per student. However, there are scholarships available.

“Istanbul is not a cheap place to live,” Simpson said.

While teaching in Istanbul, Simpson met his wife, Aysun, a chemistry teacher, who is Turkish.

The couple and their two children, ages 5 years old and 5 months, live in Portland. They went back to Turkey for seven weeks this summer to visit her family and travel.

In Istanbul, he said, little English is spoken on the streets. American travelers can feel at home, though, as American food franchises are all over Istanbul.

Drivers in Maine shouldn’t complain about gas prices at the pumps, as Simpson said gas in Turkey costs about four times more than in the United States. “Most expensive gas in the world,” Simpson said.

He said cars with small engines in Turkey are about 30 percent more expensive than here. Simpson said Turkey has improved its infrastructure and has modern highways.

Turkey borders Iraq, Iran and Syria.

“It’s (Turkey) about 98 percent Muslim country,” Simpson said.

With the civil upheaval in Syria, Simpson said Turkey has opened its doors to refugees. Hundreds of thousands, according to news reports, have fled strife-torn Syria to Turkey. But during his recent visit, Simpson was not in that part of Turkey where cities are hosting refugee camps.

In their recent visit, the Simpsons traveled in southern Turkey along the Mediterranean Sea.

“I’m happy to be back,” Simpson said this week, “happy to be back with my kids.”

Gorham High School is happy he’s back, too. “He has high standards and a big heart,” Record said. “We are proud to call him a Gorham Ram.”

Gorham Superintendent Ted Sharp, who has worked in more than 20 countries, cited Simpson’s value as a faculty member.

“While we earnestly hope that many of our Gorham graduates will have the good fortune to work with international firms, visit other countries, and become conversant in a second language, we know that some of them will not enjoy these privileges,” Sharp said.

“Having teachers on our Gorham staff like Jason who have lived and worked abroad and have been immersed in another culture enables our students to experience, vicariously, other cultures, traditions and languages.”

Back from visiting Turkey, English teacher Jason Simpson returns to his Gorham High School classroom.

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